The NBA trade deadline is starting to creep up and with every passing day there is more and more speculation about what the Los Angeles Lakers are going to do. The Lakers have been the most disappointing team in the league and it is clear that the Russell Westbrook experiment has not gone as planned.
Every Laker fan knows that a Westbrook trade is far-fetched, especially since the team is being stubborn in what it is willing to do to trade Westbrook. However, there are other moves that the Lakers can make to try and bolster the rotation and make a run at the NBA Championship.
There is a myriad of trade candidates for the Los Angeles Lakers.
While the Lakers do not have much in terms of trade assets, there is still several different avenues that the team could explore, including ones that we have broken down here at Lake Show Life.
Zach Buckley of Bleacher Report recently broke down three potential trade targets that he thinks the Los Angeles Lakers should pursue this season. There are some recognizable names in Buckley’s list that fans might get excited for if the Lakers do indeed pursue them.
However, there are complexities to what the Lakers do during the trade deadline and not every proposed trade target would be a good decision by the Lakers. We are going to break down the three potential targets that Buckley named (as they all realistically could happen) and decide whether or not the Los Angeles Lakers should pass or pursue.
The Los Angeles Lakers should pass on Eric Gordon
Eric Gordon is the biggest name that the Los Angeles Lakers could realistically trade for this offseason after the team has reportedly given up in its pursuit for Detroit’s Jerami Grant. While the immediate answer to a Gordon trade might seem like a resounding yes, when you dive into it, it really would not be worth it for the Lakers.
Gordon is shooting at a career mark from beyond the arc this season and that should be all the reason to want to trade for him. Adding a 40% three-point shooter next to LeBron James is typically the easiest decision to make for a team.
However, this team does not need more three-point shooting. The Lakers already have the likes of Malik Monk, Wayne Ellington, Carmelo Anthony and even Avery Bradley who are all shooting well this year. This team is flawed because it has too many players who can shoot but cannot play a lick of defense. That would include Gordon.
Gordon is a well-below-average defender and that is only going to get worse as he gets older. Not only that, but he is an undersized two-guard and would practically be unplayable next to Avery Bradley as the Lakers would be sacrificing far too much size in the backcourt.
Heck, it is hard to justify playing Gordon next to anyone in the Lakers backcourt as the team would be throwing out two horrible defenders. The only player he could play next to would be Talen Horton-Tucker, who would have to be traded in this deal for it to be possible!
Even if THT’s value is not what we thought it is, the Lakers definitely should not trade him for Eric Gordon.
The Los Angeles Lakers should pass on Terrence Ross
This one I really don’t understand and Buckley is not the only one that has proposed Ross to the Lakers. There is a contingent of fans that have brought up Ross’s name as a potential trade target and quite frankly, it would only make the Los Angeles Lakers worse.
Gordon at least has the high three-point percentage so I can understand why someone would talk themselves into the Lakers trading for him. Ross does not have that and he does not have the defense either. He is a better defender than Gordon, sure, but he is no longer a valuable defensive player in the NBA.
At one point Ross was a decent option to be a cheap defensive wing in a playoff rotation. However, he was never more than slightly above-average and now he is below-average. Ross has posted a -1.2 Defensive Box Plus/Minus this season and has been in the negative (meaning he is below-average) the last four seasons.
Add that to the fact that he is shooting 30.5% from beyond the arc this season and it is hard to see the value in Ross, especially if you are paying him $12.5 million. The team already has one really disappointing wing player in Kent Bazemore. Why add another?
The only way that Ross should be a Laker is if he is included in some kind of salary dump trade that lands Westbrook in Orlando. The Magic are really the only team that has the contracts to send for a Westbrook salary dump and is bad enough to do it.
The Los Angeles Lakers should heavily pursue Kenrich Williams
Kenrich Williams would be a dream target for the Los Angeles Lakers. However, just about every contending team could use a player like Williams in its rotation so his market might be too dense and the Lakers could end up missing out on him.
However, that does not mean that the Lakers should stop themselves from pursuing him in a trade as trading for him would be great business. Williams not only can add shooting next to LeBron James, but he is also an above-average defender.
Adding Williams gives the Los Angeles Lakers more lineup flexibility and helps the team play Anthony Davis at the five. Williams would essentially be Kyle Kuzma in this rotation but would be a better version of Kuzma. Davis can play the five with LeBron and Williams in the front court with Russell Westbrook and Stanley Johnson in the backcourt.
That is suddenly a five-man rotation that has four players who can play above-average defense. As much of a liability Westbrook is in crunch time, if LeBron can truly convince him to play off ball then his defensive woes might not be as bad with these five around him.
Williams is only making $2 million this season so the Lakers would not have to trade much contracts in return. The Lakers do have a trade exception as well and if they have to, I would not be completely surprised if they are willing to trade a future protected first for Williams straight up.